Law School Dean Named Vice President for Academic Affairs at Creighton

Law School Dean Named Vice President for Academic Affairs at Creighton

Creighton University School of Law Dean Patrick J. Borchers, J.D., has been named vice president for Academic Affairs at Creighton. His term is effective July 1, 2007. He replaces Christine Wiseman, J.D., who was named provost of Loyola Chicago.

Borchers has served as law dean for eight years. From 1990 to 1999, Borchers was a faculty member and an associate dean at Albany Law School in New York. Prior to that he was in private law practice in California and also served as a law clerk for the Hon. Anthony M. Kennedy, now an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Under his leadership applications to Creighton’s law school have more than doubled and the school has won several regional and national trial skills, negotiating and moot court competitions. During his tenure the school has hosted the Hon. Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court as a visiting professor every other year.

The law school was awarded its first federal grant from the U. S. Agency for International Development to study resolution of property claims involving Cuba. Borchers, an international expert in conflict of laws, is leading a cross-disciplinary team of six faculty and seven students working on the project.

In 2005, a $4 million gift from the family of C.L. Werner, founder of Werner Enterprises, helped establish the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution which enrolled almost 50 master’s students in its first year.

The law school also received a U.S. Department of Justice grant to create a Community Economic Development Clinic, which is committed to encouraging economic growth and stability within under-served communities in Nebraska, while providing third-year law students a clinical experience.

Borchers received his law degree from the University of California, Davis, in 1986. In 1983 he earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from Notre Dame, where he was a Rhodes Scholar nominee.

Borchers is the author of four books and more than 50 law review articles. He serves as co-chair of Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey’s task force on public safety and on the board of Catholic Charities.